Abstract

Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) is currently seen as a short-term replenishment pull system. Moreover, VMI is usually synonymous with a distribution context and stable demand. However, industrial partners are faced with uncertainty in the context of a B to B relationship. Thus, an adaptation of the actors’ planning processes is needed and the question is posed of the interest of VMI in a context of uncertain demand. The purpose of this paper is firstly to analyze the link between VMI and pull logic. Secondly, we explore the extension of VMI notions to the relationship between industrial partners and we confront VMI with uncertain demand in terms of trend, vision of the trend and variability in order to verify the usual stable demand assumption. We also present an integration of VMI into a simulation tool called LogiRisk that we have developed for the evaluation of risks of in supply chain collaboration policies, and a small case study.

de Toni A. F., Zamolo E. (2005) From a traditional replenishment system to vendor-managed inventory: A case study from the household electrical appliances sector. International Journal of Production Economics 96(1): 63–79CrossRefGoogle Scholar